• Question: how much of our DNA do we share with a starfish?

    Asked by to Ditte on 27 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ditte Hedegaard

      Ditte Hedegaard answered on 27 Jun 2014:

      Starfish belongs to the same group of animals as sea urchins, fruit flies, spiders and sea cucumbers, called invertebrates . Humans (and other mammals), fish, birds and reptiles belong to a completely different group of animals called vertebrates, which means that unlike the invertebrates we have a spine with the nerves and gastrointestinal track running a long it. In all vertebrates the mouth is found at the top of the spine and the anus is found at the end. The star fish does not have a spine and its mouth is located in the center and the excrement comes out of its arms, so it is far to say that we are very different.

      I’m not sure how much DNA we share with starfish, but I would guess it is around 50-60% because they are so different from us. We share more DNA with other vertebrates.

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